The egg industry wars have fired up again! Yee-haw! I’ve been getting a little bored lately – so thanks to Jim Romahn’s blog post, “Here’s the scoop” (http://agri007.blogspot.ca/2012/12/heres-scoop_7234.html) for lifting my Christmas spirits once again! That blog post is definitely a lengthy one but anyone who wants to know what Gray is being accused of can certainly become informed – complete with email quotes. Considering those quotes, it makes me wonder how in the world Bill Gray, L.H. Gray staff and Egg Farmers of Ontario (EFO), specifically EFO General Manager, Harry Pelissero, can claim that they have done nothing wrong. Really? I’m not buyin’ it. And if this information isn’t true and damaging, why does the Gray lawyer want it kept secret? Is the EFO Board of Directors still ready to support their manager and staff in light of this information? If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, must be a duck? That’s right.

I also caught wind of the new policy that’s being implemented at EFO, regarding quota increases. For those folks who don’t understand how it used to work, when the supply of eggs in Ontario needed to be increased because Harry and his Board deemed it necessary, quota was given (yes, I said GIVEN!!) to already existing egg producers. So let’s see how that worked – so for an egg producer who had 10,000 chickens already (which is a small flock in Ontario) and a 1% increase was GIVEN, that egg producer would be GIVEN the right to house an additional 100 chickens but if they didn’t have room for those birds because their barn was full, they got to SELL that GIFT of birds. In this case, to the tune of $250/bird for a total GIFT of $25,000. Well Merry Christmas Egg Producers!

Now the process involves leasing out the increased quota which equates to added revenue to EFO rather than to the individual producers. So why the policy change now? Trans Pacific Trade Talks making them a little nervous? Possibly? Needing a bit more revenue to fund those lawsuits that Harry says aren’t costing EFO anything? Definitely. One will never know the real reason unless it is ‘leaked’ by someone in-the-know as EFO isn’t accountable to anyone – even their own producers. Maybe the lawsuits or the trade talks will change that. Here’s hoping!